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BAE to support construction of second Thai patrol vessel

BAE Systems’ Offshore Patrol Vessel is equipped with a surveillance radar and a 30mm small caliber gun system. BAE is to support Bangkok Dock in the construction of its second 90-meter vessel for the Royal Thai Navy. Photo by BAE Systems

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 (UPI) — BAE Systems to assist Bangkok Dock in the construction of its second 90-meter Offshore Patrol Vessel for the Royal Thai Navy.

Under the contract, the company will provide engineering support and advice during the construction process. BAE Systems Naval Ships commercial director Nigel Stewart says the contract helps strengthen the relationship between the company and Thailand’s navy.

“This contract to support delivery of a second Offshore Patrol Vessel to the Royal Thai Navy is a clear endorsement of our versatile Offshore Patrol Vessel design,” Stewart said in a statement. “With three of these ships already in service in Brazil and a further three Offshore Patrol Vessels under construction for the UK Royal Navy, our design continues to attract significant interest internationally.”

The Royal Thai Navy received its first 90-meter patrol vessel from Bangkok Dock in 2013. The vessel, called HTMS KRABI, is a variant of the baseline BAE Systems design, and has completed roughly 1,000 days at sea with the navy.

BAE Systems has a technology transfer agreement with Bangkok Dock, an industrial partner based the country. Under that agreement, BAE Systems provides the design for the vessel and additional engineering and technological support.

The vessel is equipped with an air surveillance radar to track low-flying aircraft and assist in anti-smuggling operations. The boat is also armed with a 30mm small caliber gun and port-mounted 25mm guns, allowing personnel to engage fast inshore attack craft.

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Thales reveals configuration of the RTN’s new OPV and proposed Pattani-class upgraded plan.

Royal Thai Navy is on the preparation process of building its new OPV, the second of the Krabi class, and they still choosing Thales Nederland as lead system and combat system integrator. The second ship will have a higher capability. Thales also proposed the upgrade plan for the Pattani-class that, if implemented, will bring the capability to the standard of what it is on Krabi class.

TACTICOS still a combat suite for the yet-to-be name OPV. 4 MOC Mk.3 console station will be installed along with two large collaboration wall displaying the situation picture. The air-surface surveillance radar will be the rotating 2D dual C/X-band TWT Variant radar along with rotating2D X-band FMCW LPI solid-state Scout surface-helicopter control radar. Mk X(A) TSB2525 and STIR 1.2 EO Mk 2 is the main fire control. R-ESM capability rely on Vigile Mk 2. L3 Wescam MX-10MS optronic surveillance system and Terma SKWS C-Guard, X-Band and S-Band Sperry Marine Vision Master radar, Furuno ARPA radar will also be installed.

The ADS-B and AIS are also believed to be install on board.

Main gun will be Oto Melara 76/62 compact stealth shield and two MSI-DSL/ATK 30 mm DS30MR Mk.44. There are also an preparation for the anti-ship missile to be installed. RTN is looking at the RGM-84D Harpoon, but if there is any export ban RTN will shift to C-802A instead. But ThaiArmedForce.com believe that the Harpoon deal, if it is exist, will go through consider United States just approve the additional sale of RIM-162B ESSM to the RTN. The two Terma DL-12T will make this ship the first RTN ship that capable of avoiding the anti-ship attack.

Thales also providing the FICS integrated communication system and FOCON IP phone. Network centric mission will go through Thales Link Y Mk.2 that enable the ship to share information with allied force.Thales also integrating the Link RTN developed by Avia Satcom/Rohde & Schwarz. SATCOM will be using Cobham Sailor and underwater communication will be using Ocean Technology Systems Aquacom to communicate with diver. The LRAD also be installed for law enforcement mission.

Imtech Marine UniMACS 3000 series integrated bridge system will handle all bridge word. TACAN will be also installed. ThaiArmedForce.com’s opinion is this the indication that the new OPV will have an on-board 7 tons helicopter.

RTN spokesperson give some more detail about the second OPV project.

Aside from the BAE Systems’ enhanced design, the ship has helipad capable to accommodate the 11.5-ton helicopter or S-70B in RTN. RGM-84 Harpoon will be installed on board the ship and most of electronic systems are from Thales.

The project value is 5,482,930,000 Baht in which 2,832,930,000 Baht is the construction cost and another 2,650,000,000 Baht is for the weapon systems procurement. The timeframe will be from 2016-2018. (posted February 29, 2016)

Another plan that Thales proposed to RTN is the Pattani-class OPV upgrade plan. Over specification will be On 17 September, Royal Thai Navy signed the contract with Bangkok Dock and Italthai Marine for drawing, materials, and associated equipment and services to be used in the construction of its new offshore patrol vessel (OPV)

HTMS Krabi

Royal Thai Navy is looking to build its next OPV based on the modified BAE River-class OPV. The first ship – HTMS Krabi – already enter into service several years ago and rumors said that Royal Thai Navy will modified the second ship further, including adding the helicopter deck.

The ship will be built at Mahidol dockyard. Overall project value is believe to be around 2850 mil Baht or 80 Mil USD.

Also, Royal Thai Navy signed contract with Italthai Marine to construct its new tug boat.

3rd to 6th ship likely to be similar toKhareef-class corvette

SMART-S (Signaal Multibeam Acquisition Radar for Targeting) is an all-weather 3-D target indication and surveillance radar system intended for all types of naval vessels from fast patrol boats upwards. Its prime application is as the main sensor for data handling and weapon system control, and it has a very high performance in the presence of heavy clutter and electronic countermeasures. The equipment has been designed to cope with small high-speed anti-ship missiles with radar cross-sections down to 0.1 m2 and approach speeds of Mach 3+, which can be either sea skimmers or arriving from high angles of 70° or more.

The SMART system operates in F-Band(the traditional of this frequency band name was S-Band, the designator is SMART-S therefore), where it offers an optimum balance between range, clutter rejection and antenna dimensions. It provides automatic detection, track initiation and track maintenance of both air and surface threats, with gapless coverage over a complete hemisphere from the sea surface upwards. It incorporates anti-clutter and electronic counter-countermeasures features such as multiple reception beams with ultra-low sidelobes in elevation and azimuth, a clutter analysis sensor, broadband transmission, pulse repetition frequency and radio frequency agility per burst and a jamming analysis sensor. SMART is designed to track 160 air targets and 40 surface targets simultaneously.The system comprises an antenna and three main below-decks units. The hydraulically stabilised antenna consists of a single-element wideband transmitting array, and a multi-element stripline receiving array. The ultra-low sidelobe phased array allows the formation of multiple receive beams in elevation. To ensure high sensitivity, preprocessing of the received signals takes place in the antenna unit itself. The output of the 16 antennas is fed to a digital beam forming network in which the 12 independent elevation beams are produced, after whichDopplerFast Fourier Transform processing and automatic tracking is carried out. The transmitter is based on a high power, pulse-to-pulse coherent Traveling Wave Tube. Integral identification friend-or-foe can be provided. (adartutorial.eu)